Pest Plants & Animals

What is a weed?

‘Weeds are plants that invade and thrive in environments in which they do not naturally occur.’

'Environmental Weeds' threaten natural ecosystems, can invade native plant communities and compete with them for space, nutrients and sunlight, resulting in reduction of plant diversity and loss of habitat for native animals.

They're often seemingly attractive, innocuous, common garden plants – did you know they can even be native to Australia or exotic.

Council's Weed Identification Booklet can help you better identify these Environmental Weeds and explains the various methods of control (copies of the booklet are available from Council offices).

Declared Noxious Weeds

By law, landholders are required to control or eradicate noxious weeds, as proclaimed under the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994.

Rabbits

Did you know European Rabbits are one of Victoria’s most destructive and problematic pest animals?

They cause environmental damage by:

destroying Indigenous vegetation;

competing with native animals for food and habitat

causing erosion, soil loss and creek and river bank destabilisation.

inflict significant economic cost on the agricultural and horticultural sector and reduce the value of parks and gardens by feeding on plants and digging up turf. They can even be a common problem in the home vegetable patch

State legislation (Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994) requires landowners to control declared Pest Plants and Animals, including rabbits, on their land. This means taking action to minimise their impact and to prevent their spread. Council works with individual property owners and Landcare Groups to meet its obligations.